


Sword and Stake (Hath Yet Her Honor and Her Toil)

by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling)



Series: One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts [1]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Gen, Remix, Training, Women Being Awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 07:37:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1596881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/edenfalling/pseuds/Elizabeth%20Culmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The new Council hires Lucy Pevensie to train novice Watchers.  Dawn enrolls in her class.</p><p>Remix of <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1189848/chapters/2427714">Sword and Stake</a>, which is posted on AO3 as chapter three of the ficlet collection <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1189848?view_full_work=true">Three for All</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sword and Stake (Hath Yet Her Honor and Her Toil)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rthstewart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Three For All](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1189848) by [rthstewart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart). 
  * In response to a prompt by [rthstewart](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rthstewart/pseuds/rthstewart) in the [remixmadness2014](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2014) collection. 



> Because you deserve all the gifts, rth. :-)

"I killed my first vampire at thirteen," Lucy Pevensie tells the trainee Watchers as she sets a last bundle of stakes on her desk. "The Council sent a gentleman round the next day to determine whether I might be a Potential, and then attempted to discourage me from doing anything about vampires and demons simply because I hadn't any mystical calling to slay them."

She rakes the class with a challenging stare. Dawn's spine straightens involuntarily.

"You may have heard the saying, 'God helps those who help themselves.' In other words, you cannot expect any good to come if you don't work for it, but once you set out on a course you might be surprised at the chances that open before you," Lucy continues, striding back and forth at the front of the lecture hall, weaving around the dozen training dummies arranged in stances of threat. "There are many kinds of work, of course! Not everyone is suited for battle, but it would be shameful to close our eyes to the reality of our world. So we learn to see clearly in the shadows, that we may drag their denizens into the light."

She halts, her tiny, ancient figure framed and menaced by two looming dummies. "Any questions?"

The novice Watchers shift and exchange sidelong glances. Dawn bites her tongue. She definitely has questions, but she's in this class mostly to evaluate Lucy's teaching style and pick out the most promising recruits. If she participates too much she'll skew her results.

"Um. So Watchers don't have to go into the field?" a middle-aged woman asks.

"Correct," Lucy says. "Research is just as vital."

"Then what are the stakes and training dummies for?" a young man asks.

Lucy smiles. "We won't force you to hunt vampires. That doesn't mean vampires won't come hunting you, or those you love. And I have no intention of leaving you helpless."

She picks up a stake, holds it loosely in her right hand. "The first thing to remember is the position of the heart. Don't worry about ribs. If you have confidence in your strike, that enables the symbolic magic of the wood to penetrate vampiric bone with ease. The second thing to remember is that you _must_ remove the stake before the vampire turns to dust. Otherwise your weapon will disintegrate as well."

Lucy spins on her heel and slides the stake into the nearest training dummy's chest with speed that would be shocking from someone half her age. She pulls back, rebalances, and stabs the dummy on her right equally fast. The stuffed figures sway on their posts. One topples. The sound is very loud in the silent lecture hall.

"I'm getting slow in my old age," Lucy says ruefully. "Time was, I could manage three vampires in that amount of time, and all three would have fallen. If my brothers were still in this world, they'd never let me hear the end of it."

She tosses the stake, catches it neatly after a spin. Dawn blinks, recognizing a knife-fighter's absent, habitual grace, and calls herself ten kinds of stupid for missing the signs before. Especially since she's spent years rolling her eyes at Buffy's little-blonde-waif act and wondering how anyone could fall for such an obvious trick.

She prefers a sword herself, likes the leverage and reach advantage that help keep vampires out of biting range, but it's hard to find plausible excuses to carry a sword in public, to say nothing of getting one past metal detectors. Stakes are much easier to keep at hand. And Lucy's right that even if you don't go looking for monsters, there's no guarantee they won't come looking for you.

It's best to be prepared.

Dawn falls into line behind the other novice Watchers, waiting her turn under Lucy's tutelage.


End file.
